Driveway Construction.... it's bigger than a really big thing

We actually received the quotes on the two driveway options on Thursday last week.
It has just taken us until now to recover sufficiently to write about it.
Well... that's not entirely true. It's not all that bad. The cost is kind of what we were expecting, but not what we were hoping...

• Driveway Option 1- 3 metres wide and 45 metres long, including 20% contingency sum and 10% GST = $44,000
• Driveway Option 2- (our preferred design) 3 metres wide and 70 metres long, including 20% contingency sum and 10% GST = $58,000

The Android spent a considerable time huffing and roaring, gruffly announcing that it would be more cost effective to buy a tractor and build it himself (an undertaking not outside the realms of possibility as the Android is partly constructed of used farming equipment)...

Steampunk Tank - made by NAO Design

but eventually he was able to reboot his logic board in light of the fact that driveways form part of the Development Application to Council and are required to comply with yet another ludicrous number of codes & legislations.

Part of the above cost is due to the existing site soil not being of suitable quality to be used as fill, so engineered fill would have to be imported to the site. And for Driveway Option 2, we're talking 120 cubic metres of fill. With the usual cries of "remoteness" and "accessibility" echoing in our ears, you can appreciate that importing fill can only be done at considerable cost.

So here is our dilemma... we need a driveway. We can't really afford a driveway. We can't start building without a driveway.

And the only thing we have in sufficient quantities to barter with is shed cat fur (a commodity that doesn't fetch that much in this galaxy).

Neal-the-Architect, skillfully masking his growing frustration with the Viktoria/Android Committee, is going to talk to Cordwell Lane (the builders) and request that they provide us with a "split quote" for the same work. Hopefully with the split quote we can spread the driveway cost over what we need to have in cash now as opposed to what we can include in the construction loan later.  And with Cordwell Lane already on board as our builders, hopefully they will be able to provide us with a less heart-attack-inducing quote.
The Android is making noises about going down to Tasmania in the near future - he hasn't seen the new house site, and Neal has promised some roof design options (3D model versions too!) which the Android can play with.
Meanwhile, we have been making preliminary enquiries on the costs of transporting our 'stuff' down to Tasmania... unfortunately, we have an older model Time Machine which doesn't come with the limitless interior space option of the more familiar TARDIS so have to make other arrangements...
We will pass on what we have learnt about shipping containers next time we catch up.